Happy
by CalPal052699
Summary: Short little post 'Limelight' 6x13 story. When Alexis asks Kate for advice, she realizes how happy she truly is.


**This is my first ****_ever _****Castle fanfiction. And, because I'm new too watching the show, it might be a little OCC, but I tried. I hope you guys like it :)**

* * *

I smile as Castle leads me out of the building's elevator and to the door of his loft, holding my hand tightly in his. No matter how long I had denied that I had any romantic feelings for my partner, in _everything_, now, I can't imagine being anywhere else, with anyone else, holding anyone else's hand. And that's why I had our engagement announced in the newspaper earlier today, because I didn't want to be anywhere else, with anyone else, and I didn't want people to think he did either. And seeing those articles about he was getting back together with the ex-Mrs. Castle, I wanted to make sure his fans knew that there would be a _new_ and _last_ Mrs. Castle, one named Katherine Beckett, me. I was the soon-to-be bride of Richard Castle, and seeing people speculate about his love life with _other women_ made me want to tell the whole world I loved him, and was planning on spending the rest of my life with him, so I did exactly that - and scared him by letting him think the story had leaked at the same time. But the look on his face when I told him it was me and explained to him why I did it, not to mention the feel of his arms tightening around my waist where I had placed them, and my arms wrapped around his neck as I looked into his loving eyes. It was almost perfect. And then Ryan and Esposito had to ruin it - almost like two little kids unconsciously ruining their parents perfect moment. And since we separated, since I brushed by him telling him that a space wedding would not be happening, at least not for our wedding, my lips have been craving the soft touch of his, and then maybe the not-so-soft touch of them.

He reaches over and opens the door, and we are instantly greeted by Martha, my soon-to-be mother-in-law. She holds the newspaper out to Castle, forcing him to look at it because of how close to his face she's holding it. Both he and I let out soft laughs as he uses his free hand to take it from her. I close the door behind me, letting go of his hand before following him and Martha into the kitchen, where she had been preparing dinner before we arrived - which was not exactly good.

"I thought you guys were keeping it a secret, Richard! Does Kate know? She must not, or she wouldn't be very happy with you" I hear, then see, Martha scolding her fully-grown son as she chops up food. I find myself muffling a laugh with my hand, and then decide to clear up the whole situation before Castle gets in trouble with his mother. I walk up to them, a smile spread what feels like permanently across my face. As I approach Castle, the soft sound of my heels clicking against the floor telling him I was going in his direction, he opens his one arm to me. I happily walk into his open arm and feel it tighten around my waist, where it ended up draped.I rest my head against his shoulder, my arm draping around his back.

"Actually, Martha, I'm not mad. I'm the one who had it put in the paper" I tell her, turning away from her to look up at Castle, who is already looking back at me. I hear a soft not-giggle - Kate Beckett does not giggle, ever - escape my throat as his lips suddenly press to my forehead. I totally miss her reaction, lost in the moment with Castle, until she speaks.

"Good! You two are so cute and happy and I was scared all those stupid rumors would break you up!" she says, and when I turn to her I see the smile spread across her face. "Being in the spotlight can be hard, though" she adds. I bite my lip to keep from letting a laugh escape me, because I know full well that Martha, as much as she'd never admit it, had not spent much time in the spotlight - her acting career is a little... exaggerated when she talks about it.

"Thanks, mother" says Castle. "Trust me, I'm glad she told everyone too" he adds, and I feel his grip on my waist tighten, pulling me into his side a little more. Martha smiles at him before turning back to the... cucumber she was cutting. Or at least I think it's cucumber. Castle smiles back before turning, towards the living room, releasing me in the process. I turn to follow when the door opens again, and that time Alexis walks in.

My first thought upon seeing her is that she looks flustered, confused... almost lost. And then I find myself wondering why she's here, not because I don't want her around, just because she usually spends her evenings with Pi. She looks around quickly, her loose strawberry blond hair fluttering around her as she turns her head back and forth, until her eyes land on me. I smile at her, but she doesn't smile back, successfully worrying me as if I were her mother - which I sometimes felt like... sometimes.

"Kate?" she asked, kicking off her shoes at the doorway and stripping off her coat and scarf, grabbing a hanger to hang them up in the closet. I nodded, acknowledging her question and telling her to continue. "Can I, uh... talk to you? Alone?" she asks. I glance around the room quickly, slightly confused as to why she wants to talk to me and not her father, or grandmother, but I turn back to her and flash another smile anyway.

"Of course" I tell her. She smiles slightly, a forced smile and goes straight for the stairs, not acknowledging Castle or Martha. I follow her up the stairs, and into her old room - the room she had before she moved out with Pi - still confused. I watch as she plops down on her old bed, closes her eyes and takes a deep breath, as if trying not to cry, and I find myself even more curious as to what's going on. I shut the door behind me and lean against it. "What's up, Alexis?" I ask. She looks up at me, her eyes glistening with unshed tears.

"I need your advice" she tells me. I nod and walk over to the bed, taking a seat at the foot of it. I reach over and tentatively place a hand on her thigh.

"You can ask me anything, Alexis" I tell her softly. She looks down at her lap, nodding shyly.

"How did you feel when my dad proposed?" she asks softly, so quietly it's barely audible and I almost have to ask her to repeat it.

At first, I'm taken slightly aback by her question, a question I never imagined being asked by her, for some reason. Then, I find myself smiling as I think of the answer, remembering the day Castle dropped to one knee and asked me to marry him. That day in the park, on the swings, after our fight. I remember the gut wrenching feeling of thinking he was leaving me, breaking up with me, walking away and leaving me crying on the swing at the park. I remember him saying we deserved more. I remember thinking he was just going to stand and walk away. I remember him standing and then dropping to one knee and proposing. I remember the pure shock that consumed me, then, after he stood up and pointed out I was surprised, the joy that took over my entire being, pushing me to plant a firm kiss to his lips. And then, snapping back into the moment I'm actually in, I wonder why Alexis wants to know this.

"Why?" I ask. She looks up briefly before looking back down.

"You can't tell dad" she tells me. My eyes widen slightly.

"Alexis, if you are in any danger... I can't lie to your dad about your safety" I say, suddenly worried for her well-being, all while trying to figure out what she wants to tell me that Castle can't know.

"I'm not in danger, Kate" she assures me, and I let out a soft sigh of relief. "It's just... Pi proposed" she elaborates. Suddenly, everything makes sense, why she wanted to talk to me alone, why she asked me about my reaction to her dad's proposal, why she doesn't want Castle to know.

"Oh" I say. "So, you're engaged?" I ask. She shakes her head no, then shrugs, obviously unsure. "Alexis, what's going on?" I ask.

She proceeds to explain to me the events of the day, staring with her rant to Mandy, then talking about how happy Mandy looked with her boyfriend, about how she was planning on breaking up with Pi, then about his proposal that made her question everything she had thought today. Listening, I can see why she's so confused. She's nineteen, in a relationship she was doubting, and then her boyfriend drops to one knee and asks her to marry him? I'd be confused, too.

"And you're engaged, to the love of your life" she adds, and I smile, knowing her title for Castle in that moment is nothing but the truth. "So I thought that maybe you could tell me how being proposed to is supposed to feel" she finishes, her eyes looking into mine expectantly. I nod.

"Okay" I answer simply. "Ask me whatever you want to know, Alexis" She looks up at me, a small smile playing at her lips.

"What was the first thing you said, after he proposed?" she asks me, and I smile at the memory.

"'Oh my god! You're proposing!'" I answer with a soft chuckle. "I was really surprised... because I though he was going to break up with me, not propose" I add. "That was the second thing I told him" She laughs softly, and I wonder if she can picture me doing that - I never could until Richard Castle came into my life and broke down the walls I so carefully assembled around myself. "And then I kiss him" I tell her, feeling the need to add that tiny detail even though she didn't ask another question.

"And how did you feel?" she asks after a long silence. I feel a bigger smile tugging at the corners of my lips, and don't bother to hold it back.

"Like the happiest, luckiest girl in the world" I tell her honestly, remembering the pure joy that took over me as I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my lips to his. "Like... like nothing could ruin that moment, everything was perfect. The man I loved... he loved me back... and was willing to spend the rest of his life with me" I elaborate, my smile widening slightly and tears beginning to well up in my eyes. Alexis was smiling, too - the smile of a girl dreaming of one day feeling the same way I felt that faithful day.

"You still look so... happy remembering it" she says. I nod.

"I am" I say simply. She looks at me silently for another few seconds - her eyes on me but her mind clearly elsewhere - before nodding, as if realizing an unsaid fact.

"Thanks, Kate" she says. "I know what I have to do" I smile at her.

"I'm glad I could help" I tell her. Her smile widens slightly and, next thing I know, she's wrapped in my arms, her head against my shoulder. I smile and pull her tighter against me, because this is one of those moments where I feel like a mother to her.

"I'm glad my dad's marrying you" she says softly before pulling away from me. I don't reply, unsure of what exactly to say to her comment, and somehow knowing she doesn't need an answer to know how much that means to me, because it made my heart flutter and skip a beat all at once, because it was a reminder of the fact that not only Castle, but Alexis, too, was welcoming me into her family.

Silently, we both stood up and leave her old room, which I have a gut feeling would be her room once again within the next twenty-four hours. She walks down the stairs quickly, me following behind her at a more leisurely pace. By the time I get to the bottom, she's shrugging on her coat. As she reaches over for her scarf and wraps it around her neck, her eyes meet mine, one last question lingering in them. I nod, reassuring her that, if she's following her heart, breaking up with Pi is the right thing to do. She smiles at me and opens the door, shutting it behind her. Once she disappears, I turn and head towards the living room. Castle is sitting there, watching me as I walk in and plop down next to him on the couch. I only then realize that it's oddly silent in the loft, and glance around to notice Martha has disappeared. I turn back to him.

"Where's your mom?" I ask. He shrugs and I let a laugh escape me in response.

"She got a call, told me 'they' needed her and left" he explained. I laugh again, because that was such a Martha kind of thing to do. He smiles at me, and opens his arm to me like he had earlier, when I had explained to Martha that I had publicized our engagement. I smile at him before leaning into his side, my head resting against his shoulder as his arm circles my waist. "Where's Alexis going?" he asks. I'm about to tell him when I remember I promised Alexis I wouldn't.

"She has something she needs to do" I say. He shoots me a confused look. "You'll find out soon, I promise" I add, flashing a smile before leaning back against him.

We sit there, in complete and comfortable silence, for a while. His fingertips started running against my side, pushing up my shirt, after a few minutes. My arm had draped across his chest about a minute later. That, his fingertips slowly revealing the skin of my lower back as they trace slow lines on the newly revealed skin there, and my arm draped over his chest, holding him close, is how we're still sitting when I realize that that could be our last moment alone in the loft for a while, with Martha living there and Alexis most likely moving back in after, if I'm right, she breaks up with Pi. I look up at him and smile again.

"You know I love you, right?" I ask. He looks down at me, a smile spread across his lips as well.

"If I didn't, your stunt with the newspaper sure proved it" he says, a hint of humor coming across in his voice. I smile, looking down shyly and then quickly looking back up to look him in the eyes.

"I wanted the world to know you were _mine_" I tell him. He grins at me.

"I am" he says. I grin back at him and lean up to kiss him, a kiss meant to be soft but didn't remain that way for more than a second. His tongue quickly lips into my accepting mouth and my hands grip at his shoulders. When we break apart for air, I'm straddling his lap. "Why don't we take advantage of our time alone in the loft?" I ask suggestively, grinning at him. I don't know when Martha or Alexis will be back, but figure we have at least enough time for one round. He doesn't answer out loud, just fuses his lips back to mine and stands up, forcing me to wrap my legs around his hips, pressing my core against his harder. It was all the answer I needed.

* * *

A little while later, as we lay in our bed collapsed against each other in a jumble of sheets and limbs with thin layers of sweat covering the both of us, I know that the happiness that bubbles up within me every time I remember the day that Richard Edgar Alexander Rodgers Castle offered to share the rest of his life with me would be forever. And, I have no doubts about letting the world know that he's mine, and will always be, because I know he loves me, and will never hurt me, or let anyone else hurt me. And, I know the advice I gave Alexis was the right advice, because she deserves to feel as happy as I do, whenever Castle holds me in his arms. So, when he presses his lips to my head, and asks me what I'm thinking about in a whisper. I smile against his chest and answer him honestly.

"Just about how glad I am that everyone, at the precinct, in our families, in New York, and all your fans, know how perfectly happy you make me"


End file.
